Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1887-06-10

/
hood memories, which would he recog-
nized as imposing to-day and in old COM
munties. was regarded as little less than
palatial amid the crude surroundings of
that day in that section. Then, too, its
Inequalities were wide and generous
Two children, a girl and boy. were born
to the Notewares. and their family COM
prised. moreover. Richard Noteware S sis
ter Dinah, but few years older than
her brothers children. She was a gay
and somewhat frivolous girl, who made
pleasure her only object in life, and who
appreciated and improved to the utmost
the social advantages attending her
brothers position.
When the civil war broke out. Richard
Noteware was one of the first to Join the
Federal army, after making the neces-
sary provisions for the safety and comfort
of his family. Edna. the IS year old
daughter. was an inmate of boarding
school at Chartres. across the border. I'M
der the tuition of Professor Dodd. famous
as an instructor throughout the southern
states. Lot. year the junior of his sis
ter. was left at home with Mrs NOteware
and Dinah three servants. a woman and
house was amply provided with arms and
ammunition, although ii was not antici-
pated that the dav would come when re-
course must be had to them, as the tide
of war would hardly set that way But
though the regular armies never invaded
that region. from the first day of the war
it was contested ground among the bands
of irregular guerrilla Combatants. who UNI
der the cloak of the great national strug-
gle INDUCED in their natural prOpensi-
ties for robbery. murder, rapine-all
deeds of disorder and violence. claiming
psuedo justification of allegiance to one or
the other army. The refugee or econ
traband" negroes too. shortly spread ter
ror drought the country by the mon
strous atrocities they committed, and af-
ter the proclamation Of '63 this class was
frightfully numerous,
The one great terror of Mrs. Notewares
life was the fear of these negroes. She
had in childhood witnessed an uprising
of the negroes in slave state adjacent to
her home, in which the house of her
hosts was besieged and many of the
neighboring planters massacred; and the
scenes of horror of that episode haunted
her memory and overhung her like dark
cloud. AT this time she redoubled the
precautions to protect her household. and
absolutely refused to leave the house, not
withstanding the urgency of Dinah's en-
treaties Dinah herself was too obstinate
in the qualification of her pleasure loving
instinct. and too reckless, with the mex
perience of danger to heed the alarms of
her brothers wife. Naturally, diversions
were diminished by the prevailing condi-
tons, and whenever a festivity did take
place. Dinah was fairly mad to take part
in it, Therefore, her eagerness was up
in arms when word was received of a
festival to be held by the Confederate
local branch of the sanitary commission
at Charities. which little city had sent
forth an ample contingent of the finest
flower of her young manhood to the
southern army When all other means
failed to obtain Mrs. Noteware's consent
to the expedition, Dinah averred that
young friend lately from Chartres had
communicated to her the suspicion that
Edna Noteware's health was somewhat
impaired, although she would not admit
the fact in her letters home. to spare her
mother distress. To visit the festival
would, so Dinah urged afford an oppor-
tunity to visit Edna. and learn if she were
really ill. The mothers tenderness at
once rose superior to her personal inclina-
tons and fears, and she consented to the
trip, which was to be made in company
with several carriage loads from the town
near by, whose citizens still awaited them
selves of every opening to continue their
int lo ~
pie.
On the day of the fete, and Just before
the hour of starting. there came to the
Noteware house an antiquated gig hold
ing two aged ladies', who lived some fif-
teen miles away, poor, obscure and in
firm, their greatest pleasure being the
occasional visits of a day to Mrs. Note
ware. Under these circumstances it was
impossible for the hostess to leave home.
Her apprehensions for her daughter, how
ever, would have moved her to discourage
the abandonment of the trip by Lot and
Dinah, if that young lady had entertained
such an idea. the which was, however,
far enough from her mind. Accord
ingly, aunt and nephew drew away, and
joining their friends at the adjacent
town they went on to Chartres without
incident on the way. AS the distance
was less than twelve miles, it was thor
oughly practicable to enjoy reasonable
amount of pleasure in the early part of
the day and then return, reaching home
by the set of sun, according to agree
ment. But Dinah Noteware was too
greedy of pleasure to act in conformity
with this arrangement, and she managed
to avoid the return party, reassuring Lot,
after the departure of their friends, by
reminding him of the immunity their
immediate vicinity had enjoyed, and
making light of his mothers nervous
fears. The boy had his misgivngs, but
he was very young, and he shared in
some measure his aunt's mercural tenn
permanent Besides. as Dinah urged,
they had not seen Edna; for the aunt. on
hearing that the academy girls We're to
be brought in the evening to the fair en-
masse, had voted it useless and foolish
to waste enjoyable time by driving out
IN ba c1,b1rhan cphnnl TIM, I - ,,.oo